Thursday, February 9, 2012

Sure. Iwate Prefecture is Japan alright. Since the company who packaged the dried shiitake claims it has mixed shiitake harvested in different parts of Japan (never mind that they did say the shiitake are mostly from Iwate Prefecture), the label can claim "made in Japan".

The photo is from the press release from Yokohama City. (Click to enlarge.)

Yokohama City announced on February 9 that 2,077 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was detected from dried mushrooms sold at a supermarket in Kohoku-ku in the city. The provisional safety limit is 500 becquerels/kg. 7 packets have already been sold. The city notified Shizuoka Prefecture where the packaging company is located, and ordered the supermarket to recall the packets.

After being notified by a citizen who measured the radioactivity [of this dried shiitake] on his own, the city conducted its testing on February 9. The Tsunashima-Tarumachi store of a supermarket chain "Big Yosun" sold these mushrooms with effective date of 1/10/2013. Otsuka Food located in Fujieda City in Shizuoka Prefecture packaged the mushrooms in 80 gram packets, which was sold exclusively at the supermarket chain. According to the packaging company, the mushrooms are mostly from Iwate Prefecture.

スーパーによると、綱島樽町店では２０袋を入荷し、うち７袋を販売。ほか２店でも店頭に並んだが、購入者はいないという。

According to the supermarket chain, their Tsunashima-Tarumachi store had purchased 20 packets, and sold 7 packets. 2 other stores also had the packets but none of them have been sold, according to the chain.

According to the city, if one eats 80 grams of this dried shiitake the internal radiation for 0-year-old would be 0.003833 millisievert, and 0.0025724 millisievert for people 13 years old and older. It is considered that if you re-hydrate the shiitake, the density of radioactive cesium would drop to about one-tenth.

According to the new safety standard guidelines that the Ministry of Health and Labour has compiled to take effect in the new fiscal year [starting on April Fool's Day], the internal radiation exposure limit is 1 millisievert per year or less.

As if 80 grams of dried shiitake from Iwate with radioactive cesium is all you eat the whole year.

7
comments:

Anonymous
said...

I wrote about this before but since your latest report of observations from a scientist I feel some better. Late last year I was on a visa run in Hong Kong and on the weekend at the grocery they were handing out samples of foods. I carelessly accepted a sample of something the lady was handing out and after the goody was in my mouth and on its way the lady said "Mushrooms from Japan. Very good". Well, I've lived in fear all of these weeks later until I read about the earthworms and their castings here on your blog. I'm glad to know about the castings but I really hope the lady was just messing with me as it seems people can see me coming from a mile away. I don't have the means to be tested but if I were they'd probably find all kinds of terrible things not related to Fukushima but more likely something from my ex in Tokyo or the one in China or back home or even more likely chain smoking, nose picking and drinking for most of my life.

Well, I do not know if it is that I am just paying to labels more and more, but produce is starting to be label strangly here. More labels say made in Japan instead on indicating where they are from. Some labels refer you to a code in which one must have a computer to figure out where it is from. The ground beef is labelled as coming from Autralia and Japan for some reason.

I cast like a cow so I think I will be ok. I read your post about the Japanese grown tobacco as well. I have to find out where my tobacco comes from as I do most of my casting in Taiwan. I certainly need a survey meter. Everyone needs one these days. Thank you again for all of your work.

I don't buy any processed food, drive into the country and buy vegetables from local markets, and only eat fish that I personally bought from the fishing port between Tango and Shimane. I don't trust any labels. This may sound harsh, but look up Chenobyl and you will understand my concern.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

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